BORDON should find out in the next few weeks whether it will house a controversial waste transfer station for the district.

Hampshire County Council has been evaluating sites in East Hampshire for a transfer station after protests were voiced about proposals to site the facility next to the existing household recycling centre in Station Road.

The plans were put forward because Hampshire Waste Services, which is contracted by the county council to collect rubbish from the area, is obliged to provide a waste transfer station somewhere in the distric.

However, before agreeing to site the transfer station in Bordon, the county council agreed to examine possible sites elsewhere in the district.

A report into these sites is nearing completion and, according to the council, a final decision on the issue will be made by the county leader Ken Thornber sometime between January and March.

The news comes after Hampshire Waste Services announced that it was planning to construct a multi-million pound Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Holybourne near Alton.

Around three-quarters of the plant will be given over to sorting recyclable materials such as plastic, tin and paper, into separate components, with machinery and manually.

There is some hope that the Bordon site will not be needed because a section of the site in Alton will also be used as a waste transfer station for the collection of non-disposable waste which will be taken by articulated lorries, either to be incinerated or more likely to a landfill site.

A final decision has not yet been made.

Both the MRF in Holybourne and the proposed waste transfer station in Bordon form part of an overall waste strategy for Hampshire.

Three incinerators are being built in Basingstoke, Southampton and Portsmouth and a number of MRFs and waste transfer stations will also be built at strategic points around the county to help move and sort the waste.

Around 840,000 tonnes of waste are collected in Hampshire each year, some 420,000 tonnes of which are incinerated, and the hope is that the construction of additional MRFs for recyclables and waste transfer stations will help the county reach a target of recycling 40 per cent of its waste.